non-rhetorical questions... please answer.
 

This is not a thread loaded with gallagher-esque questions such as ... why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways... why are they called buildings if they are done building them... (This is where i kick gallagher in the groin)

This thread is meant for everyday questions and/or problems that someone might have...

I have a few that have been bugging me lately and i hope someone could help me..

I have blond hair... used to be REALLY blond when i was a kid, now its just dirty blond. My facial hair, mustache and beard, grow in red. i mean really red...

why is that?


Next question:

why do they call petroleum jelly... petroleum jelly... ?


and finally:

Does anyone know of a site where new businesses can apply for a government grant for start-up ?


Thanks,

the management

You have a selection of genes for hair colour, the facial hairs have more dominant red characteristics, which is probably linked to why your hair has changed colour. Your head hair is more disposed to blonde, as your saw during your childhood, or something, i'm burned out on biology at the moment.
My head hair used to be white blonde, but is now more golden, and i have black facial hair, damn genes!

Over here (and in the rest of the world) what you know as gasoline is called petrol, derived from petroleum. Petroleum jelly has elements of these compounds in, and since they're gloopy, they called it jelly.

In regards to your hair changing color...

I'm reminded of the question, "Why are babies born with blue eyes?" If I remember my biology correctly there is a protein called melanin which adds brown color to your hair and eyes. At birth babies eyes do not contain melanin (they appear blue) however it is deposited there as time goes on.

I imagine the same thing occurs in hair folicles. I myself went from a sandy blonde to brown.

I've got a non-rhetorical question about biology.

When chromosomes cross over, is any point on the chromatid equally likely to cross over?
Or do the ends cross over more often?
Does any crossing over happen at the centromere?
if not, what sort of genetic information gets put there in the middle where it wouldn't cross over?

About the petroleum jelly, and how it got its name ....

http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/expla...s/vaseline.asp

Google.... it's your friend. Use it.

I wonder what people told people who asked questions before google ever came along?

/me really wishes the phrase google is your friend would die and go away forever, its really annoying

look it up in your Funk and Wagnalls was the phrase heard around my house constantly - and in school as well :)

I wonder, has google put the encylopedia companies out of business?

We used dogpile and altavista. Duh. :)

I REMEMBER THAT!!!

My school librarian used to use that phrase, but we had Encyclopedia Brittanica at school.

You can imagine my shock when I thought my librarian was telling me "Go look it up in the Fucking Wagnell's..." :eek:

Remember the television commercials offering a complete set of Encyclopedia Brittanicas for the low price of 29.95 per month, and you will get a new letter every month for 24 months! (I think they crammed Q and R together, as well as XYZ).

I was jealous, because some of my friends had encyclopedias at home. Their homework must be a breeze!

I had National Geographic, though, so I had cool pictures pasted into my assignments (and I do mean cut with scissors and paste with glue, not the MS ctrl-c ctrl-v commands).

Shit, I feel old.

Ah...encyclopedias. I recall many a cold winter day spent just leafing through "R", or "S", or maybe even "C". Sure, it may have been a geeky thing to do (in my day it was "nerdy" though), but really...was it all that different from "surfing" nowadays? And it's probably why I'm such a font of useless information, to this day. ;)

You mean there is somebody besides me that read encylopedias for FUN :lol:

The best are the old encyclopedias with outrageously outdated information. I used to love going through my mom's set from the early 50's when I was a kid. It would talk about the canal system on Mars and how scientists thought that life had developed there, Joe Kennedy (the father) had a longer entry than JFK (the son), the entry for "computer" was about a third of the page and described things the size of my house and the vaguely racist entry for "Africa". Nothing better than spending the latter part of a snow day thawing out in front of the fireplace with my jingoist literary ancestors....

it's funny, I'm only 25 but I must be from the threshold generation, because I still clearly remember using Encylopaedia Britannica to do my homework, and others like it. I did use computers a lot but the net just wasn't what it is today.

For the question about starting up businesses, I found this:

http://www.proposalwriter.com/govtgrants.html

There were other search engines, and good ones.

But before the Internet itself? You don't want to know... You really don't. Unless you're over 30 or so, and then you know anyway.

Yes, dictionaries and encyclopedias and various "books of knowledge" in certain disciplines were more popular in pre-Internet times. For example, there were yearly almanacs or "books of fact" that contained summary information about the states, the countries, zip codes and area codes, celebrities' birthdays, sports stats, and a lot of things that people now look up online. These may still exist for all I know; but up until the '70s '80s you found them on every newstand and magazine rack in the first part of the year.

But the worst of it... for speciality info or info that hadn't been put into book form yet... was the dreaded "Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature," which listed magazine articles by topic. Every library had them (still does). This was as close to "on-line" info access that the average citizen has, and it sucks. This is how the procedure works:

1) At the library, you look up the topic you want in the Reader's Guide Directory for the previous year; then in the mid-year supplement for the first part of this year; then finally in the most recent quarterly-update paperback. If you can find it.

2) The Reader's Guide covers articles from 1000+ publications. You now check whether your library carries that publication. About 50 percent of the time, they don't.

3) You write down the name, volume, and date for the particular magazine or magazines you want, throw it in a box on the reference desk, and wait.

4) After he or she gets done slacking off in the break room, an 18-year-old library page picks up your request and wanders back into the magazine stacks, where you're not allowed to go.

5) A few minutes later, _some_ of your magazines appear on the counter. Not all of them do. No explanation is ever volunteered, but if you ask, you'll be told that the issue is missing. Or, that the magazine you want is still out on the floor with the most recent issues. Then you go there and find out it really _is_ missing.

6) Want copies? Most of the time you can't take the magazines home. So you have to make copies on the library's expensive and badly functioning coin-op copy machines. Wait, you don't have change?

This was how research was done when i was a lad. I do not miss it. And you _don't_ want to get me started on microfilm readers, either.

I first heard that phrase on the old Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in series in the late '60s. Laugh-In was a kinda-bad but innovative sketch comedy show that was big on double-entendre humor (the only kind of dirt you could sneak on prime-time TV at that point). Rowan was the straight man and Martin was the lewd and leering sidekick, and whenever the subject got to anything in even vaguely in bad taste, "You can look that up in your Funk'n Wagnalls" (that's the way he said it) was his standard retort.

uh yes Im over 30, so I know how we did it back then lol and my comment was meant to include all "search engines"

sorry....my major pet peeve in live is hearing "google is your friend"

people ask a question to get a discussion started and are told the above phrase...thats like slamming a door in their face

oh and as a genealogist....I understand your pain on microfilm readers lol Dave and I spent last weekend fighting with one while doing some research on marriage records from the 1800's

AMEN! They are hours of entertainment on any day. But they are useful as well, at least to history dorks like me, since they often cover things that are glossed over or ignored in contemporary encyclopedias (or on the web).
Plus, there's nothing like the smell of old, high-quality books... :love:

AMEN!!! pip I think I love you :lol:

There's me darling - but that's no shock is it?

NO - statistically, the chromosomes towards the ends of the tetrads are crossed far more frequently. Crossover occuring closer into the centromere is pretty unlikely due to the actual mechanics involved - if not actually impossible (I'd have to check on that part).

As they're still mapping the genome, I don't know what information is most likely to be in the middle. Going off the top of my head, I'd say those would be the things that you notice being inherited together. I.e., if the gene loci (actual location on the chromosome) for green flecks in your eyes was next to the gene loci for blond highlights, then anyone who had one would have the other, almost always.
:thumbsup:

National Geo was the coolest and a must for anyone with kids in school who wanted them to do well. I remember seeing a box set of cd-roms for NatGeo for like $100. I was so tempted to get it.

Depends on the question. I wouldn't refer someone to Google for the questions on the meaning of life, relationship weirdness, the "best" movie or recipe or way to do something, political opinions, because these are questions that are asking for point of view as well as information. When someone asks your personal opinion, they deserve a personal answer.

Also, if somebody asks a very complex question, like the question about blonde hair turning darker, I wouldn't refer them to Google. Because it's complex, probably specialized, and who knows what the right search terms are? It might take hours to track it down. So I can understand asking a forum.

That said, "Where did the name petroleum jelly come from?" is neither a complex question or a judgement/recommendation request. Out of curiousity, I put "petroleum jelly" into Google and got a complete explanation from the very top hit. I don't think it's out of line to ask people to use a _little_ initiative in life on the easy questions.

I still have an entire set of encyclopedias of "lost civilizations" that I bought in my 20's (and there ARE more than 2, I ain't THAT old). The 'bonus edition' that came last was printed upside down. :lol: (Just don't ask me about lost civilizations-I haven't cracked open those books in a decade)